Despite winning the 2017 championship, Antonio Conte did not leave any major emotional traces in West London, the Italian has always remained a mystery to the Chelsea crowd with his comical mixture of choleric hyper-nervousness and cool distance from players and fans.
Next week, crowds of fans of the Blauen will take him to their hearts for a short time and only wish the very best. Many sympathizers of the London club believe that Conte can then become the midwife for the long-awaited transfer of Kai Havertz to Stamford Bridge.
However, it is by no means certain whether a win by his Inter team against Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the Europa League would actually accelerate an agreement between Chelsea and the Bundesliga club, as one suspects on the island. The Bayer club management vigorously defends itself against claims that the young national player’s move to the British capital is only a matter of time or that it will be reported directly after leaving the European competition.
Although this would probably coincide with Chelsea’s exit from the European Cup – after all, after the first leg of the first leg and the 0: 3 at home against Bayern Munich for the second leg on Saturday, the Londoners only have one theoretical chance of progressing.
Bayer Leverkusen relies on time
Internally, Leverkusen has been prepared for a longer negotiation process anyway, as the numbers of the two parties are still quite far apart. Bayer does not want to achieve less than 100 million euros for the top talent, Chelsea like to put around 20 percent less on the table.
What is certain is that the Blues are currently the only serious option for Havertz ‘next career move and that he can well imagine a commitment in London. Coach Frank Lampard explained to him in a personal conversation that he could use his keen sense for spaces and solutions between the lines of Chelsea to decisively refine the sometimes faltering combination game.
Lampard has not escaped how little his young eleven, who prefer to come through force and speed, made long periods of possession against weaker teams in the past season. Only 69 goals from 38 games speak of a certain lack of imagination against low-lying opponents, which Havertz, the elegant ball passer, is supposed to fix in a central role with ten good ideas per second. Chelsea’s international head scout Scott MacLachlan has been raving about the Aachen native’s extraordinary abilities for years; Managing director Marina Granovskaia, who is in charge of the owner Roman Abramowitsch, who no longer lives in London due to visa problems, is also convinced that Havertz ‘exquisite talent will make Chelsea (fourth place, 33 points behind champions Liverpool) eligible for the title again in the near future.
There is enough money available
After the transfer ban from Fifa last year and the sale of Eden Hazard (Real Madrid) and Alvaro Morata (Atletico Madrid) for a total of almost 200 million, unlike many competitors, the club has the opportunity to aggressively enter the market regardless of the corona crisis act. Timo Werner had made no secret of the fact that he would have preferred to join Liverpool, Havertz ‘game might fit better with Bayern or Spanish top clubs. Chelsea will / would undoubtedly improve. Impulse purchases can also fit perfectly into a system.
If Chelsea and Leverkusen can agree on an acceptable price, Havertz will be the third reinforcement for the attack after his national team colleague from Leipzig and the Moroccan Hakim Ziyech (Ajax, 40 million euros), which at the same time gives a somewhat frightening look at the still to be mastered Defensive problems raise.
Many of the 54 goals conceded by Chelsea in the league in 2019/20 were caused by coordination problems in the backward movement rather than individual weaknesses in the back line. World champion Ngolo Kanté was rarely able to patrol the huge areas behind the often high and somewhat uncoordinated pushing strikers due to injuries, midfield mastermind Jorginho often looked as if he would prefer to sit in one of these leather “director” chairs from Hollywood without any play equipment on his foot After only two years on the tough coaching bench, especially at Chelsea, Lampard, 42, still has a lot of tactical development potential to reduce the weaknesses in the collective.
There are gaps at the back
Nonetheless, he would of course sign one or two additional defensive experts. West Ham’s Declan Rice and left-back Ben Chilwell (Leicester) are traded, and there is also a need between the posts. Unfortunately, Kepa Arrizabalaga, the most expensive goalkeeper in the world (80 million transfer fee, Atletico Bilbao) has become the footballing equivalent of the data-stealing app Tik-Tok in his second season: the 25-year-old is a single security hole, and therefore only behind veteran Willy Caballero second choice.
Given the miserable starting position and the necessary renovation work, the trip to Munich can hardly be more than an unpleasant summer excursion for a workforce that is only just beginning to develop. Even a second clear defeat would not change the fact that Lampard continues to have the official educational mandate. As an ex-player icon, he enjoys the support from the owner and base that the hectic grumbler Conte was never given to.
